Hi everyone,
The second PMAT field trip and quarterly meeting is coming up on the 7th of May!
This time we'll be going to the Moorina Fossicking Area to look for gemstones: sapphires, topaz and zircons. It's the perfect excuse for a weekend away in the beautiful northeast.
This field trip is free for PMAT members. If you're not in PMAT yet, why not come over for the field trip and meeting, and join the association on the 7th of May? For more info see http://www.pmat.org.au/event/field-trip ... ossicking/

The plan is to meet on the site, it's not hard to find. We can arrange to meet somewhere else a little earlier if it's easier. For example the Moorina Cemetery might be a good place. However it's no harder to get to the Weld River Bridge on Frome Road.
We will have membership forms there on the day.

My name is Neil, new member to the forum and pretty much a complete newbie to fossicking and prospecting.

I was just wondering if newbies are welcome to come along/join? It would be great to meet some people with a bit of experience and learn a few tips and tricks. I'm still a little bit confused as to where exactly to look and haven't had much success yet. Hoping to do a bit better now that I have a proper set of sieves though, haha!

The trip is open to PMAT members, and you're welcome to join PMAT on the day, if you wish. The cost of membership is $20 per year.
Sieves make it easier for sure, you can make do with a pan when you start out, but you won't process a lot of material, and if you're hoping to find a good stone, it's all about tonnage!

Thanks for the reply mate as long as there are no pre-requisites I've missed I'd love to join; I've even had the membership form printed out for about a week now and already have 20 sitting aside ready to go, haha!

Really looking forward to meeting you guys and learning a bit, I've nearly read your blog top to bottom and it is very helpful, though the best I've done so far is a couple of nice (to me) pieces of quartz/smoky(?) and a near perfect water worn sphere of (I think) basalt, which was a pretty cool find

hoping the weather will be kind now that we've had a good rinse, too! I'll see you in the morning